REVIEW: Edgar Wright’s ‘The Sparks Brothers’ Documents The Musician’s Musicians

You’ve probably heard of Sparks recently - but chances are that before this year that name had slipped you by for the past five decades. Nonetheless, between their 50th anniversary and the announcement of their debut film, Annette starring Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard, things have been pretty busy for the band.

But the truth is, they’ve never not been busy: the team of brothers Ron and Russell Mael have 25 albums and around 300 original songs in their repertoire. They are arguably the hardest working band of all time, and their enduring and prolific output is at the forefront of the new documentary, The Sparks Brothers.

Forever being touted under the guise of “the best band you’ve never heard of” or “the musician’s musicians,” the Maels have been total enigmas for their entire careers. Director extraordinaire Edgar Wright has himself been saying for years that someone needs to chronicle this band and their legacy, and finally, he has put up or shut up with a mammoth doco featuring over 80 interviewees (himself included). 

From their childhood in California to moving to London and back, every stone is overturned in the journey to unveil these mysterious figures. Who are they? Why do they do what they do, the way they do it? Why the hell aren’t they the biggest band in the world? Why should we even care?

It’s these sorts of questions that arise throughout The Sparks Brothers, but the fact of the matter is that this is really just a story of two people who love both the work that they do and each other unconditionally. It’s not the usual thoroughfare of in-fighting, substance abuse or record executive bigwigs that one might expect in the rockumentary genre - it was never going to be. They, like their story, are just too unique.

The true success of The Sparks Brothers as a film is in its ability to balance itself between the extremes of the fandom spectrum. Those who have never heard of the group will be welcomed without alienation, while the most hardcore sparkies will never feel they are stagnating during the better-known aspects of the story. 

The pacing - especially considering the film’s runtime of nearly two and a half hours - makes the experience fly by. Pair this, again, against the band’s immense musical output and it somehow doesn’t seem enough time to thoroughly traverse the entire back catalogue. But Wright has always been so much more than just a director - he knows how to weave magic into the screen like few others can. In his first foray into documentaries, the filmmaker shows the world that he always knows what he is doing - even when he is not in control of the narrative.

The Sparks Brothers, perhaps more so than any other music documentary before it, is a love letter to the people involved. It’s about the pillars on which the Maels built their entire careers: never giving up, never giving in, and always being true to yourself. Their music is divisive, often even difficult to listen to, but the songs are, at best, b-characters in this tale. It’s really just about these two kind of weird guys that have stayed together through thick and thin. They’re funny, funny looking and interesting as hell. It’s hard not to fall head over heels in love with The Sparks Brothers, regardless of your taste in music.

'The Sparks Brothers' is currently showing at select cinemas across Australia